Toshiba to build Japan's biggest solar plants in Fukushima

TOKYO, June 20 Toshiba Corp said on
Wednesday it will begin building solar plants with a total
generating capacity of 100 megawatts on the country's
disaster-hit northeastern coastline, making it the biggest solar
project in Japan.

Electronics conglomerate Toshiba, which makes everything
from lightbulbs to nuclear reactors, said it will spend around
30 billion yen ($379.6 million) t o build several large-scale
solar plants in Minami Soma more than a year after a devastating
earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.

The project overtakes an earlier plan by Kyocera Corp
, heavy machinery maker IHI Corp and Mizuho
Corporate Bank, which said it will launch a 70-megawatt
plant in southern Japan.

Toshiba said it will start building the plants this year and
aim to start operations in 2014.

Residents of Minami Soma, located just 25 km (16 miles) from
the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, were forced to flee their
homes last year after a part of the city was deemed a no-gone
zone by the government in the wake of the world's worst atomic
disaster in 25 years.

The company's announcement comes after the Japanese
government approved new incentives for renewable energy through
an introduction of feed-in tariffs (FIT) this week, which is
expected to unleash billions of dollars in clean-energy
investment.
($1 = 79.0300 Japanese yen)
(Reporting by Mari Saito and Risa Maeda; Editing by Jeremy
Laurence)

Next In Industrials

WARSAW, Dec 9 A decision by Washington on
whether to grant Poland approval to buy eight Patriot missile
defence systems from Raytheon Co could come within the
next few months, a senior Raytheon official told a Polish news
agency on Friday.

Dec 9 Actor Judge Reinhold was released from a
Dallas jail late on Thursday night following his arrest for
causing a disturbance at a local airport after refusing to be
screened at a security checkpoint, police said on Friday.